Orality & Story telling

Orality & Story telling

1. Yeshua was a master story teller: He never taught anything without parables. Although His disciples did not yet have the New Testament, Christianity spread throughout the world through story telling. (Matt. 13:34)

2. Jews from every nation under heaven who had come to celebrate the Passover and the Pentecost, saw the crucifixion, resurrection and birthing of the church. They heard about the “wonderful works of God” in their own native languages. They returned home and shared the story of Yeshua throughout the world. (Acts 2:5-12)

3. 75 percent of the world belongs to the oral culture: Even in media-sophisticated countries, the majority of the people want to get their information through oral means:  films, radio, television, and the internet. This is called “secondary orality.” The Western bookish culture can reach only a small fraction of the third world.                                                                                                 

4. The Bible is God’s story book. Only 10 percent of the Bible is is abstract theology. If story telling worked for Yeshua, then it must work for us also as it still does in the Sunday schools. (Matt.13:35; Ps.19:3)

5. Gospel or gödspell means “good story” in old English. It translates the Latin word evangelium, “a story whose telling has power.” Whereas sermons are multipoint monologues that cannot be reproduced, stories relate interesting events and are easily reproducible. Literate or illiterate, everyone loves a good story. Stories multiply rapidly when repeated by others. (Psa. 45:16).

6.  No one argues with a story: Stories sail right past person’s defences, create hunger for more stories and plant seed. No seed no fruit. In fact no seed, no nothing.

7. All major religions like Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and even Christianity have spread through the ages, in songs, skits and stories. Peter skillfully wove eschatology and prophecy into Yeshua’s story, resulting in baptism of 3000 souls. (Matt. 13:36; 51,52; Acts 2:14-47)

8. Parables being flexible, they can be contextualized without losing their essence, whereas historical events must be kept accurate, lest errors multiply. Stories are self-explanatory and need expounding only when listeners ask. Difficult words, like redemption justification, sanctification etc. should be avoided. (Luke 8:9; Jer. 6:16)

9. Story telling is an acquired skill and needs researching the local culture to contextualize. Stories must be repeated often to become part of the culture. Effective story telling is a powerful tool for discipling the nations.

10. Grassroots oral communicators, most of whom are women, are today reaping 80 percent of the harvest in the 10/40 Window countries. They come preloaded with burden for reaching their lost oikos so go and share the gospel through stories and testimonials. (Isa. 32:9-18)

11. Faith comes by hearing: Through hearing of Bible stories, memorizing and repeating them, a non-literate becomes an ‘Oral Bible’. All they need is a good story teller to teach an ever-increasing number of stories, in their language and cultural context. Oral Bible is authentic, historical and a powerful tool that transforms unreached oral societies. We need millions of such master story tellers. (Rom.10:8-17; Luke 24:13-35)